5/21/2010 @ 2:00PM

The Highest-Paid Coaches In Sports

Phil Jackson is arrogant, condescending and wacky. His shtick over two decades as an NBA coach includes whining over alleged preferential treatment of opponents by referees and throwing barbs at opposing players and coaches who he thinks play too physically, all while trying to impart Zen wisdom on his players.

That “I know better than you” smirk Jackson regularly flashes from the bench has been grating on opponents and viewers for years. Nonetheless, a 0.705 career winning percentage and 10 championships say there’s one thing you also have to call Jackson: the best coach in pro sports. Put that together with a glamour franchise, a big market and a relationship with the owner’s daughter, and it’s no wonder he’s paid over $10 million per year, easily ahead of every other coach in American sports.

Jackson, who currently has the Los Angeles Lakers up two games to none in the Western Conference finals, is trying to add to his own record by taking an 11th championship ring as an NBA coach. Even with the good fortune he’s had to coach superstars Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, Jackson’s run of titles is pretty astounding in the modern NBA of 30 teams and four playoff rounds.

Legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach, who presided over a dynasty during the late 1950s and ’60s, won his nine championships during an era in which the league had eight and then nine teams, two playoff rounds and limited player movement. That’s not to diminish Auerbach–he’s one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time–but a modern coach with more rings than Bill Belichick and Joe Torre combined has a strong case for best-ever status.

The runners-up to Jackson in the money department: NFL Super Bowl winners Belichick and Mike Shanahan (just lured back to the sidelines by the Redskins a year after being let go by Denver), and veteran NBA coach Larry Brown, all of whom earn annual salaries around $7 million.

Not surprisingly, all of the 10 highest-paid coaches hail from the NBA or NFL. They have a salary-boosting career option that coaches in Major League Baseball and other sports don’t–a lucrative college business. Big-time coaching gigs in college football and basketball can pay as much as many pro jobs. Industry observers generally point to the hiring of college hoop hot-shots John Calipari by the New Jersey Nets and Rick Pitino by the Boston Celtics in the 1990s as the main triggers that sent NBA coaching salaries upward.

Other NBA coaches on the top 10 list: in slots six through eight are New York’s Mike D’Antoni, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich and Golden State’s Don Nelson, the league’s all-time regular season wins leader, all making around $6 million per year.

To the extent that coaching offers serve as a barometer of confidence in an improving sports economy, some recent NFL moves are certainly encouraging. Following a period in which several highly paid veterans (Shanahan, Tony Dungy, Bill Cowher, Mike Holmgren) walked away or were let go, replaced by younger, cheaper coaches, spending is picking up in some quarters. After a year off following his dismissal by the Broncos, Shanahan was handed a five-year, $35 million deal by Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, complete with control over the football operation, with marching orders to turn around the franchise.

The Seattle Seahawks forked over a nearly identical contract to pluck Pete Carroll from the college ranks, along with eating the remaining $12 million on former coach Jim Mora’s salary. A veteran coach who had scant NFL success in the 1990s with the Jets and Patriots, Carroll was able to burst into the NFL high-rent district after creating a juggernaut at the University of Southern California, where he went 97-19 with a pair of national championships from 2001 to 2009.